It has long been desired to maximize fuel economy, power and driveability in diesel fuel powered vehicles while enhancing acceleration, reducing emissions, and preventing hesitation. While it is known to enhance gasoline powered engine performance by employing dispersants to keep valves and fuel injectors clean, such gasoline dispersants are not necessarily effective in diesel fuel applications. The reasons for this unpredictability lie in the many differences between how diesel engines and gasoline engines operate and the chemical differences between diesel fuel and gasoline.
Over the years, dispersant compositions for diesel fuel have been developed. Dispersant compositions known in the art for use in diesel fuel include compositions may included polyalkylene succinimides, which are the reaction products of polyalkylene succinic anhydrides and amines. Dispersants are suitable for keeping soot and sludge suspended in a fluid, however these are not particularly effective for cleaning surfaces once deposits have formed on the surfaces. Hence, diesel fuel compositions that include dispersants often still produce undesirable deposits on diesel engine injectors. Accordingly, improved compositions that can prevent deposit build up, maintaining “as new” cleanliness for the vehicle life are desired. Ideally, the same composition that can clean up dirty fuel injectors restoring performance to the previous “as new” condition would be equally desirable and valuable in the attempt to reduce air borne exhaust emissions.
In accordance with the disclosure, exemplary embodiments provide a diesel fuel, diesel fuel additive concentrate and method for improving the performance of fuel injectors for a diesel engine. The diesel fuel includes a major amount of middle distillate fuel; and a reaction product of a hydrocarbyl substituted dicarboxylic acid or anhydride and an amine compound or salt. The amine compound has the formula
wherein R is selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen and a hydrocarbyl group containing from about 1 to about 15 carbon atoms, and R1 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and a hydrocarbyl group containing from about 1 to about 20 carbon atoms. The reaction product contains at least one amino triazole group and is present in the fuel in an amount sufficient to improve the performance of fuel injectors.
Another embodiment of the disclosure provides a method of improving injector performance of a diesel engine. The method includes comprising operating the diesel engine on a fuel having a major amount of fuel and a minor amount of a reaction product derived from an amine compound or salt thereof of the formula
wherein R is selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen and a hydrocarbyl group containing from about 1 to about 15 carbon atoms, and R1 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and a hydrocarbyl group containing from about 1 to about 20 carbon atoms and a hydrocarbyl carbonyl compound of the formula
wherein R2 is a hydrocarbyl group having a number average molecular weight ranging from about 200 to about 3000.
A further embodiment of the disclosure provides a method of cleaning fuel injectors of a fuel injected diesel engine. The method includes operating the diesel engine on a fuel having a major amount of fuel and a minor amount of a reaction product derived from an amine compound or salt thereof of the formula
wherein R is selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen and a hydrocarbyl group containing from about 1 to about 15 carbon atoms, and R1 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and a hydrocarbyl group containing from about 1 to about 20 carbon atoms and a hydrocarbyl carbonyl compound of the formula
wherein R2 is a hydrocarbyl group having a number average molecular weight ranging from about 200 to about 3000.
An advantage of the fuel additive described herein is that the additive may not only reduce the amount of deposits forming on direct and/or indirect diesel fuel injectors, but the additive may also be effective to clean up dirty fuel injectors. The deposit reduction and cleaning effect of the additive is demonstrated in post 2007 model year engine technology.
Additional embodiments and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in part in the detailed description which follows, and/or can be learned by practice of the disclosure. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure, as claimed.